For almost as long as there have been pop songs, there have been parodies of those pop songs — people who want to ride the coat tails of a hit with their own unique spin on it. Sometimes these can be funny, as seen in work from the likes of Weird Al Yankovich. Sometimes these are annoying, as seen in most others. And sometimes, they are fully sanctified, as you can see in the deep and wide YouTube rabbit hole of Christian pop song parodies, in which no Christian message is too much of a stretch to be slapped on over a number one hit.
There is virtually no limit to these unholy concoctions but there is a ranking. After a frankly absurd amount of time scraping the barrel of the internet, here are the ones that were the most baffling.
“All About That Christ” (Parody of Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass”)
With this we see what will be a recurring theme in these, in which the line between vanity project and Christian message gets a little blurry. Suffice to say, if your parody requires you to repeatedly refer to him as “That Christ,” your parody still needs a reason to exist.
“Save Me” (Parody of Justin Bieber’s “Baby”)
Honestly, nothing but love for these guys. They look like they’re having a great time and put just about the right amount of effort into this for it to feel sort of …wholesome? “Save Me” is good in our book.
“Modest Ladies” (Parody of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”)
Pretty dire, no two ways about it. In the immediate wake of “Single Ladies” there was no shortage of parodies — many of them pretty cringe — but “modest” isn’t a close slant rhyme to “single” and, hey, the song is already about a woman telling her man he should have locked her down when he had the chance. Not really a message in need of a Christian polish.
“Put It Off” (Parody of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”)
Alright, what this one actually reveals is what a unicorn Taylor’s original version is because absent her mega wattage personality there’s just not a lot going on in this song and you can’t really blame the team here for how long it all feels. But opening with about two minutes of marital bickering doesn’t help things, admittedly.
“Holy Spirit Funk” (Parody of Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk”)
There are vanity projects and then there’s whatever this is, which doesn’t so much replace “Uptown Funk” with a Christian message as much as an advertisement for the “HSC” (“Holy Spirit Conference,” apparently.)
“Read It” (Parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”)
Seasoned veterans of the Christian subculture will not be surprised that there are some puppet parodies involved here. Puppet ministry is a time-honored pillar of Christian ministry and we certainly have no beef with it. Although, again, this falls into the trap of swapping a “Christian message” in for a song that’s already pretty ethically sound, as far as its own morals go.
“The Real Sin Savior” (Parody of Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady”)
We can’t talk about Christian parodies of pop songs without talking about the band ApologetiX, who made a little career out of this back in the pre-viral internet days. This whole list could easily turn into just a list of ApologetiX tunes but we’ll just pick this Eminem parody, because it’s such a swing. At the exact moment when Eminem’s lyrics were inciting a minor moral panic for their violence and misogyny, ApologetiX saw the biggest challenge of their career and rose to the occasion.
“Party Praise Anthem” (Parody of LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem”)
Hey, if you want to do a Christian parody of a pop song, why not pick a pop song with only a couple dozen words? Minimal effort to maximum impact. “Every day I’m praisin’ Him.”
“I’m Blessed and I Know It” (Parody of LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy and I Know It”)
This feels more like a guy who just really wanted to make a music video than an actual parody, not least because “blessed” doesn’t really swap in for “sexy” with any sort of rhythm. They say “bless-ED,” which is still a stretch. “He freed me and I know it” was right there.
“Faith Works” (Parody of Katy Perry’s “Firework”)
It’s a tough song. No two ways about it.
“Boom, Boom, Power” (Parody of Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow”)
This is another tough song but full credit to this crew, it comes together pretty well, thanks in no small part to the sense of humor they have about the whole thing. Modest aims make for altogether better results.
“I Got a Feelin’ (Tonight’s Gonna Be a God Night)” (Parody of Black Eyed Peas’ “I Got a Feelin’”)
Yep, another puppet one. This one is a little less successful than the “Read It” parody mostly just because “I Got a Feelin'” can’t touch “Beat It” as a song. Repeating “and praise Him” a dozen times gets old pretty fast. But, it’s not that different than a lot of modern worship songs we could mention. Extra points for the puppet playing the keys that whole time though.
“YHWH” (Parody of Village People’s “YMCA”)
Dire. In addition to “YHWH” not mapping over “YMCA” cleanly enough for it to work, this gets perilously close to the line between good fun and disrespectful.
“Shine Your Light” (Parody of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite”)
“Shine Your Light” at least fits over “Dynamite” but what is going on with the production on the vocals here? This man sounds like a squeaky toy being kicked up the stairs one step at a time.
“Born Again Child” (Parody of Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild”)
No notes here. An all-time banger, faithfully covered with some decent truths on top of it. What more could you ask for from a Christian pop culture parody?
